RISE: UK AT HEART OF GLOBAL TAX EVASION SCHEME

Commenting on the publication yesterday of the Panama Papers, Cat Boyd, RISE's top Glasgow candidate, said:

"The publication of the Panama Papers feels like a watershed moment.

"It has given us an extraordinary insight into the world of elite tax evasion and avoidance - practices that we now know for certain occur on an industrial scale. "It has also shone a light on the central role that Britain plays in helping the global one per cent conceal their wealth.

"Shell companies throughout the UK's crown dependencies and overseas territories, notably the British Virgin Islands, hide billions of dollars in offshore capital for clients across the world. And more than 50 per cent of the companies cited in the Papers are registered in British administered tax-havens or in mainland Britain itself.

“UK banks HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland have been found to be complicit in this process, as well as Prime Minister David Cameron’s late father, proving that dodgy tax practises go right to the top of the British establishment."In other words, the UK actively facilitates a giant, stunning fraud by the global rich on the rest of us.

"This makes a mockery of the Tories' claim that 'we are all in it together' and confirms that austerity is a political choice, not an economic necessity."As David Cameron and George Osborne slice disability benefits and impose punitive sanctions on welfare claimants, they allow billions of pounds to flow out of the country untaxed.

"RISE believes that global action is needed to make tax avoidance illegal and shutdown offshore tax havens. All law firms, banks and clients found to be involved in using avoidance measures to hide tax liabilities should be prosecuted, with a tax system based on the principle of full disclosure established internationally.

"A first step must be to end all cuts to HMRC, which according to Richard Murphy of the Tax Justice Network has led to a reduction in tax collection of up to £700m. The UK Government should re-hire the sacked tax collectors and mandate HMRC to re-focus its efforts away from benefits and towards tax avoidance and evasion of the richest one per cent.

"In addition to a radical programme of land reform and redistribution, RISE supports a wealth tax - a one-off twenty per cent levy on the assets of the richest one per cent of people in Scotland.

"If any further evidence was needed that Britain's free market economy is rigged for the rich, this is it."